We can also expect the defending champ, Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas, to compete, as well as his teammate, four-time Tour-winner Chris Froome. After all, Froome has a record to chase. One more title means he’ll join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to have ever won five Tours.

Aside from that, we’re in the dark. Here are some of our bold (but educated!) predictions for the 2019 Tour de France:

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1Another Bad Year for Kittel

Getty ImagesTim de Waele

As we predicted, Marcel Kittel had a terrible Tour in his first season with Katusha-Alpecin, winning no stages and failing to make it through the Alps. Unfortunately for the German, there’s no light at the end of this tunnel. He’s getting older, and sprinters age like NFL running backs—once they hit 30, there’s no guarantee they’ll win as much as they once did.

More importantly, his team doesn’t give him the support he needs. Kittel has never been a terrific freelancer. His most prolific Tours came when he had an entire team at his disposal, protecting him throughout the stage, chasing down the breakaway, and giving him a strong lead-out in the final dash to the line. Unless Katusha adds more pieces to Kittel’s lead-out train in the offseason, he’ll go winless in the 2019 Tour.

2Even More Gravel

Getty ImagesTim de Waele

Stage 9 of the 2018 Tour presented riders with more cobblestones than any stage in recent history. Next year’s Tour starts in Brussels and could make an easy beeline for the pavé of northern France, but we think race organizers have something else in mind: gravel.

Stage 10 this year sent the peloton over 2K of gravel roads atop the Plateau de Glières, and while it came too early in the stage to have a major impact, it was visually stunning—and forced Froome to chase after getting a flat tire. Look for the Tour to find more gravel for the race to tackle in 2019.

3A Short Stage in the Vosges

Getty ImagesChris Graythen

The Tour likes short mountain stages, as they tend to promote aggressive racing. Last year offered a 101K stage in the Pyrenees, while this year brought a 108.5K stage in the Alps. For 2019, we expect something similar, this time in the Vosges, a mountain range in northeastern France known for steep climbs and treacherous descents.

We could picture a shortened version of 2017’s Stage 9, when Richie Porte crashed out of the race. It might include the three terrible climbs—the Col de la Biche, the Col du Grand Colombier, and the Mont du Chat—that would set the Tour on its ear.

4A Mass Start Race Up Mont Ventoux

Getty ImagesBORIS HORVAT

Organizers this year pulled out all the stops on Stage 17, with a new format offering a Formula 1-style starting grid, super-low mileage, and three major climbs. But it didn’t produce the fireworks we’d hoped for—at least not until the final climb.

And that’s the key to what we think will be a major innovation of the 2019 Tour: a mass start race up Mont Ventoux, which the Tour hasn’t visited since 2016. We see riders starting from the foot of the climb in Bédoin, then racing 22K up the mountain’s slopes. If it happens, it could be the most chaotic, explosive, and exciting Tour stage in recent history.

5Another Frenchman in Polka Dots

Getty ImagesJustin Setterfield

In 2017, Warren Barguil won two mountain stages on his way to taking the polka dot jersey as the Tour’s King of the Mountains. Barguil’s compatriot, Julian Alaphilippe, did the same in 2018. They say good things come in threes, so we’re sticking with French climbers for 2019. Our bold pick is David Gaudu, a wiry, bespeckled 21-year-old who made his Tour debut in 2018.

One of the sport’s best up-and-coming pure climbers, Gaudu rode a stress-free race, getting himself into a few breakaways and generally acclimating himself to the Tour. In 2019, he’ll return with justifiably loftier ambitions.

6Romain Bardet Will Not Lead His Team

Getty ImagesJustin Setterfield

After taking stage wins in 2015, 2016, and 2017, everyone wondered if Romain Bardet would finally move to the top step of the podium in 2018. Yet he fell far short of expectations by failing to win a stage and finishing sixth overall. Even more disconcerting was the freedom given to his younger, more aggressive teammate, Pierre Latour.

Riding in his second Tour, Latour was often given a green light to attack in a bid to win the white jersey as the Tour’s Best Young Rider—even if it meant leaving Bardet isolated in the group of GC contenders. Either the team overestimated Bardet’s ability to fend for himself, or they think Latour is the next big thing in French cycling.

7Roglič Wins the Tour

Getty ImagesTim de Waele

Yes, the safe picks are Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, and Tom Dumoulin, but we’re staking an early claim to Primož Roglič as winner of the 2019 Tour. He’ll be 29, yes, but he’s only been racing at the sport’s highest level since 2016, so he’s still young in cycling years. And he’s a quick study: Roglič has raced only three Grand Tours, but he’s won stages in each, and placed fourth overall in France this year.

His LottoNL-Jumbo team is stacked with climbers and has an attacking spirit, one that gave Team Sky fits in the Alps and Pyrenees. Most importantly, he’s a true all-rounder and perhaps the only rider in the world who can climb and time trial with Thomas, Froome, and Dumoulin. He’s our pick to win next year’s Tour.

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